Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is retained and directly exercised by the people. Greek society was made up of citizens who were only men born in the city-state and the non-citizens were women, slaves and foreigners. The political system of ancient Athens was a democracy, which involved all of its citizens and not only their representatives by giving them daily access to civic affairs and political power. All citizens could choose the government officials and vote for or against new laws. They held Assemblies where any citizen could speak and tell the government what it should be doing. There would be citizens chosen to be a part of the Council. The Council suggested new laws and the Assembly decided if they should be put into action, or not. Any Athenian citizen could be a part of office because they were selected by lottery. It did not matter what kind of citizen they were of what their economic status was they could be a part of the government.
The word "democracy", as well as the meaning of it can be traced back to Ancient Athens. The word comes from two Greek words: demos, meaning "the people", and kratein, meaning "to rule". The two words are joined together to form democracy meaning "rule by the people". The Athenian government was the closest to the meaning of democracy, because citizens voted on all issues of government. No other civilization has come this close then the creators of it. Ancient Athens was also kind of a birthplace of democracy, but was all of this democracy at all. That is the question because women, foreigners and slaves were denied to vote. People of power or influence were not concerned about the right of the non-citizens. The lottery game allowed men to advance because of luck instead of wealth or class. We do not know if this unusual government even worked but it is very hard to believe because it seems like they would not know the things they were in charge of and they were also inexperienced.
